Egon Brutsch was one of the most prolific microcar designers of the 1950s, but he didn’t enjoy much commercial success. His first car was the Spatz (Sparrow). Instead of a chassis the Spatz featured a glassfibre monocoque – which fell apart because it was too weak. This led to the car being banned in Germany, which proved something of a setback.
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| Flanked by his two daughters, Egon Brutsch sits in his new three-wheel car for which he developed a plastic body in Stuttgart, Germany, Oct. 10, 1954. |
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| The car seats three persons. |
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| Brutsch claimed the car weighs only half as much as a normal metal body. |
A 3-seater, 3-wheeled roadster, powered by a single cylinder 191 cc Fichtel & Sachs engine driving through a four speed gearbox. Top speed was around 90 km/h (56 mph) and about five cars were produced.
Also built under license by A. Grunhut & Co of Switzerland with minor changes and sold as the Belcar. Another license was sold to Alzmetall for production by Harald Friedrich GmbH of Germany, but so many faults were found with the original design that their production model, the Spatz Kabinenroller was fundamentally a different car. Because of this Brutsch took Alzmetall to court to ensure payment of his license fees but lost the case.
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